


Something Entirely New

by IdleNight



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Beta? I don't know her, Fuck Xehanort, M/M, Post-Kingdom Hearts III, Sora is still kinda dead so sorry about that, character study maybe, i love my son a lot if you can't tell, idk - Freeform, nomura won't give me enough canon vanitas lore so my word is law now fuck you, this is only a fix it for Vanitas i'm not a miracle worker, this is the first time im posting anything here so enjoy, vanven will happen but ventus won't show up for the first few chapters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-09
Updated: 2020-02-18
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:47:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22637875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IdleNight/pseuds/IdleNight
Summary: Vanitas learns what the power of friendship is while denying having friends like it's a professional sport.It's ok, he becomes a real boy in the end
Relationships: Vanitas/Ventus (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 49





	1. Prologue - New Beginnings

**Author's Note:**

> I have never in my whole ass time of using AO3 ever posted anything but the amazing Vanven discord i am in gave me the motivation + courage to actually post smth ahshfhf.
> 
> Please enjoy! :D

A hazy comfortable feeling washes over him, pulsating in slow waves and almost lulls him back into sleep. Instead, he gets to feel the weight of his dark suit on his skin, a rock slightly uncomfortably pricking into his back and his lungs fighting for air.

After the first uncomfortable gasp that counts as the first breath he has taken in more than a decade, black goo is forced up his throat and he almost chokes and dies again on unversed vomit.

Vanitas forgot how much it sucked to have a physical form.

He quickly forces his body to roll on his side as he spits and coughs up the black bile. A groan escaping him as he curls in on himself like he has done so many times before alone in a lonely graveyard. He feels the Flood that formed curiously move towards him and it shoves it's face in his neck, like some mockery of comfort. With a groan and a scoff, Vanitas summons his keyblade and squishes it under the weight of it. It poofs and Vanitas is immediately met with the painful feelings he had just coughed up.

Ok, admittedly not the best idea in his current state. But old habits die hard.

Vanitas uses his keyblade like a crutch as he struggles to get up, honestly pathetic, what is the point of healing with his better half for the past decade if he would wake up this weak and fragile. 

He loses balance and falls against a cave wall.

With a groan, he accepts his current predicament and leans against the wall to slowly slide down and sit down without losing balance and falling again. Vanitas closes his eyes and thinks.

_~~~~_

_Vanitas watched the boy who he has seen grow up from behind his eyes, that has healed him for the past decade, run off to do another stupid thing without really thinking._

_He scoffs and sits down again in the place Sora had managed to drag them barely a few hours ago._ _The Final World’ Chirity had called it. His Chirity, or well, Ventus’s. Not that was a detail the creature seemed to really care about._

_“Aren’t you going to go with him?” Ah, speak of the devil._

_He turned to look at the creature with the bloated head. “And get myself killed because he’s an idiot?” He laughed through his nose in a huff. “It’s a miracle I haven’t died with him earlier.”_

_“You protected him so fiercely against yourself, I thought you might do so again.”_

_Vanitas looked away quickly, frowning. What kind of connection did Chirity have with Ventus and him and did this balloon feel anything Vanitas wasn’t saying himself. Would squeezing the little fucker’s throat even do anything? Or would it also know that Vanitas was probably not going to finish the job._

_“That was just self-preservation more than anything.” Nice save asshole._

_Chirity hummed thoughtfully._

_“I wonder what’ll happen to you when he inevitably fades.”_

~~~~

Turns out what’ll happen is that he gets to go back to the world of light and suffer. A suitable punishment, of course, he definitely deserved worse for what he had done 10 years ago, or what he had just done? Time travel was weird and his head was throbbing too much to really put much of a fucking effort into thinking past the pain.

Vanitas opened his eyes and looked around. He was living his hell in a damp cave apparently, where plants somehow grew inside of, and drawings were scratched into the cave walls. His eye caught on a drawing he remembered carving, or well he remembered Sora carving with his little light. Thankfully there was no one to witness the small smile on his face. That would have been embarrassing, imagine what dear old Xehanort would have thought. Vanitas's small smile immediately turned into a grimace at his own thoughts.

At least he ended somewhere familiar, the play island here in the Destiny Islands would keep him safe enough to build up some strength until he could open a corridor and get somewhere not sporadically inhabited by tiny screaming children.

A hum escaped Vanitas as he leaned his head back against the cave wall and closes his eyes.

A little nap and he would be good to go, that’s all he needed.


	2. A New Old Face

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roxas and Co. hang out in the spooky mansion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Huh, didn't she just post the first chapter?" You may be thinking, and you would be right, but I had this already written out so you may have it, as a treat.
> 
> "Also wasn't this a fic about Vanitas? Why are we hanging out with Roxas?" you mas also think, and to that I say you are also right but shut up this is my fic and I make the rules

It’s been 3 months since the keyblade war, things had been settling down for him and his friends. Getting to know Hayner, Pence and Olette properly was both fun and somewhat awkward. Axel, Xion and him managed to find a somewhat affordable place to live in twilight town, all of them were also trying to get into some kind of school program, as Axel had missed a lot and Roxas and Xion never had any school in their life (Xion said the data world didn’t count). Life has been nice.

It had also been 3 months since Sora disappeared. Riku had recently shown up asking both him and Xion for help trying to find him. Roxas and his little friend group have been brainstorming ideas and Pence had suggested using the data world to look through Roxas and Xion’s memories and their connection to Sora.

Which is why all of them were standing in front of the abandoned mansion. 

“This place never stops being creepy.” Olette shuddered as she said it. Pence patted her back in comfort.

Roxas looked up at the window on the second floor, half expecting Namine to be looking through the curtains, although he knew his friend was in Radiant Garden helping Zexion and the others look into Kairi’s heart. Xion bumped his shoulder with hers, smiling at him when he looked down at her. He grinned back at his best friend.

“You know I’ve never been anywhere other than the basement and this place looks huge, you guys want to explore for a bit?” Hayner said, already moving towards the doors of the mansion.

Roxas rolled his eyes. “It’s called the ‘abandoned mansion’ I doubt there’s much to find Hayner,” he said as he followed Hayner anyway.

“Who knows, maybe Namine left a crayon or two behind for us to find.” Xion chipped in from behind him. He turned around to grin at her. “I think she’s more into those alcohol markers these days.” Xion hummed at his response.

They stepped through the door, and even though he’s been here a few times before, a shiver went down his spine. Although it was probably the drop in temperature from the nice weather outside. Abandoned houses didn’t have heathers and Roxas regretted wearing his usual short-sleeved jacket. The 5 of them split up looking around rooms on the lower floor. Roxas mostly just followed Xion’s lead into what seemed to be the kitchen of the mansion.

“Hey, Roxas?” 

“Hmm?” Came his intelligent reply from where he was looking through a cabinet. Jep just like he thought, dust. What an exciting search so far.

“Do you think this will actually help?” 

“There’s no one here, it was barely lived in when it was actually being lived in by Namine and that Ansem the wise guy.” He dragged his finger along a plate, jeez that was a thick layer of dust. “So no, this won’t help anything.”

“No.. I- I meant do you think this will help Sora?” Her voice broke and Roxas looked up immediately almost dropping the plate in his hand. Xion was holding herself and was looking down. Roxas instinctively moved to comfort his friend, putting his hands on her lower back and shoulder.

“It won’t hurt to try right? Everyone is pitching in to help and for now, this is all we can probably do.”

Xion smiled sadly at him and opened her mouth to reply only to be abruptly interrupted by a muffled scream from another room. Both him and Xion sprung into action, summoning their keyblades and sprinting their way towards the noise one of their friends made. 

They were greeted by the sight of Olette and Pence hiding behind a couch that was covered by a plastic sheet from a few odd little creatures that might have looked like heartless at first glance, but with a closer inspection seemed to be something else entirely.

“What the fuck are those?” He straightened a bit out of his usual attack stance, lowering his keyblades. Xion next to him kept her keyblade ready, a frown adorning her face. 

“They’re… not heartless are they?” She seemed to mostly mumble to herself, Roxas shrugged in reply anyway. The Not-Heartless didn’t seem hostile, as Olette and Pence also seemed to realize as they glanced over the furniture they were hiding behind. They were twitching around, and their little hands could probably attack someone but seemed to act like… cats? All three of them a different size as well.

“What’s going on guys!?” Hayner burst in from behind them, catching his breath. 

“Uhh, there’s weird… creatures?” Pence said, fully standing up now.

Olette followed his example, looking sheepish as she scratched the back of her head. “Sorry about that guys, they just appeared out of nowhere and kinda looked like heartless so they scared us a bit.” 

“They seem to be harmless?” Xion dropped her keyblade but still held on to it tightly, her little frown still a constant on her face.

“Oh, they’re kinda cute!” Hayner was already walking over to one of them and made an attempt to pick one up, the Not-Heartless seemed to panic and zipped through Hayners legs and darted out the room. It’s two companions in turn also became nervous, moving around more erratically but not darting away yet.

“Maybe don’t pick up the strange creatures that definitely shouldn’t be here.” Roxas patted his friends back, slowly crouching next to one of the Not-Heartless. He held out his hand for it to sniff on like he has done many times with the cats he found around Twilight Town. 

Both were hesitant but the smaller of the two moved over to sniff, then it seemed to look at him intensely with its red beady eyes for a second before practically smashing its little head into his hand. Roxas laughed at its antics. 

“Hey no fair why do you get to touch it but I can’t?”

“These things are basically cats, and we all know cats hate your guts.” Hayner huffed at him and crossed his arms while Roxas proceeded to pet the little Not-Heartless. Its hide felt kinda weird to the touch, slightly fluffy despite it’s smooth looking appearance but he could swear that it was somewhat.. slimy? Roxas was also fairly sure that it was shrinking a little bit when he was petting it. His friends slowly came over as well, Olette managing to get to pet the other Not-Heartless. And soon all of them had a chance to pet these odd little creatures. 

The two creatures perked up suddenly, fully alert, before darting away in the same direction the first Not-Heartless left in. Roxas turned to look at them leave only to be met with Sora’s face.

They made eye contact. Not-Sora had yellow eyes and black hair in the same stupid spiky way that his Somebody had, but that was definitely recognizable as Sora’s face. Sora’s face on a complete stranger, the be specific. The Not-Heartless were standing behind him at his feet, looking around him like shy children would in the market in the square, one of them was on his shoulder. There was a kind of recognition in Not-Sora’s yellow eyes and he frowned, and fuck that was definitely a frown he has seen/felt before, something dawned on Not-Sora’s face and he opened his mouth to speak.

“What the fuck?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hmm maybe not great to post my entire backlog (not an impressive one just the first two chapters lmao) but what can I say, I'm excited to be here.


	3. A New Old Face pt2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vanitas makes a home in an abandoned mansion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Wow a 3th chapter??" Jep you're right, this is the one I just wrote and finish and I wanna share it right now immediately for that sweet sweet validation.

Vanitas had taken residence in Twilight Town. Thanks to Sora he knew a place that would be abandoned, he could be save there for a while as he rested up. 

The first order of business was a change of clothes.

He found those after raiding some idiot fuckers apartment, who leaves the window open in the middle of the night? Did people think they wouldn’t be robbed because it was 5 stories up? Like that would stop any determined idiot… A determinant idiot like himself for example. Great he was insulting and talking to himself, maybe he should let the Unversed hang around longer, at least that way he might seem less insane.

The first room he had looked in belonged to some freakish giant or something, he had taken a cool necklace and had moved on, the next room probably belonged to a girl as there were some skirts in there, skirts that did fit him so he took at least one. He may not have had much of an influence over his suit of darkness but the skirt cape was pretty cool. The last room he stole the most from; hoodies, sweats, normal pants, a cool leather jacket and necessities like socks and the like. He stole at least a quarter of this kids wardrobe. Oh well, then the kid shouldn’t have been the exact same size as him, his own fault really.

He also stole provisions from that Bistro he watched Sora cook being controlled by that weird fucking rat. It would last him a few weeks at least, he could go back later.

Vanitas eventually decided to camp out in the bedroom the farthest away from the door or that weird fucking basement he wanted nothing to do with anymore.

The first few days he mostly just… slept. Apparently recreating your body from darkness when you have been sleeping in the small pocket of darkness of some kids heart for the past decade took more out of a guy than you might think. Everytime he woke up for a bit there seemed to be a few more Floods (of the smaller variety) stalking the mansion. Vanitas resisted the urge to kill them every time he was met with another Flood sleeping curled on his chest when he woke up. 

Eventually, Vanitas started doing that thing Ventus had suggested once upon a time, his light had dubbed this embarrassing activity as ‘Flood Therapy’. Vanitas had again resisted the urge to strangle the Flood he had found snuggling up to him when waking up and instead carefully scooped it up in his arms. It opened its eyes blinking at its creator before settling itself in Vanitas his arms and… what the fuck it was purring?

Vanitas could always feel where the Unversed where, and was aware when they were being attacked as he could feel it, their hurt was his. However, it seemed their comfort was also his. Unversed shouldn’t be able to feel anything but the emotion that created them, but maybe Sora’s heart changed something in both him and the Unversed.

He had petted the Flood and it seemed to shrink, the fear it was made out of also seemed to become less intense. Comfort… was another way of getting rid of Unversed it seemed. 

_ “Giving Unversed happiness and comfort might make them hurt less?”  _ Ventus’s voice rang in his head.  _ “It’ll be the least painful option for you, try it at least? For me?” _

He hummed thoughtfully as he put the Flood in his arms next to him on the bed and he throws the covers off himself, getting out of bed. Seemed his better half was right, again. He stilled. His connection with Ventus had been feeling… thinned out ever since he got enough strength to open a corridor to Twilight Town. It concerned him and he wanted to follow the invisible connection to wherever Ventus was, but his better half had been re-introduced to the worst of him and if Ventus wouldn’t try to kill or scream at Vanitas then Terra and Aqua certainly would. A shiver went down his spine at the thought of fighting Aqua again, that woman had no mercy when it came to the enemy.

A sudden spike of fear coming from one of the Unversed in the mansion confused him. He turned around to frown at the door where he could feel that particular Unversed run towards. As suspected it burst through the bedroom door that was slightly ajar, it stopped in front of its creator and motioned to follow it. Vanitas frowned but did as the little Flood wanted and finally stood up from the bed, following the little Flood downstairs towards what might have once been some kind of living room. 

He stilled in the doorframe, feeling the little Flood climb up to his shoulder and pressing its face into Vanitas his neck. There was a group of 5 kids taking turns petting two Unversed. Every time one of their hands scratched a Floods head, Vanitas could feel a ghostly imitation on his own head. While he could admit this was better than feeling phantom pains it was definitely still an uncomfortable sensation.

The Floods noticed their creator and perked up, running away from the affection of the 5 kids and towards Vanitas, they hid behind his legs. All of the kids looked up, but only one of them seemed to really matter. 

He locked eyes with the eyes of his better half. Except it couldn’t be, Vanitas would have FELT Ventus coming and his bond didn’t pull him towards this kid. He frowned, why did this fucking kid have Ventus his face?

A memory of Sora looking at a boy that looked like Ventus in a black coat, two keyblades in his hands, he grinned at Sora and Vanitas had felt Sora grinning back in his heart.

Roxas.

The only thing ringing in his head after that, the only possible thing he could utter was pretty simple, he opened his mouth.

“What the fuck?”


	4. A Knife To Cut The Tension

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A wonderful first meeting between Vanitas and future best friends.  
> Nothing ever goes smoothly for him now does it?

Vanitas and the Ventus look alike named Roxas stared at each other for what felt like hours. The air in the room was uncomfortable and the Unversed on his shoulder and at his feet were nervous, in turn making Vanitas nervous. Or maybe that was the other way around.

“Uhm, what’s going on?” the shorter pudgy boy said, Vanitas eyes shot up from where they seemed to be semi-permanently glued on Roxas to look at the kid.

“Yea why do you look like a goth Sora?” the other boy perked up, Vanitas his eyes shot back to Roxas when he made a move to stand up, they were frowning at each other. Roxas was probably thinking the same thing as his plaid wearing friend.

“I’m older than that idiot, by that logic he looks like me.” Vanitas scrunched his face up, still staring at Roxas as if to annoy him? He wasn’t sure, but Roxas looked uncomfortable and that felt pretty good. Squirm kid, be as uncomfortable as he felt.

“I- who even are you?” Roxas crossed his arms, frowning and chewing on his lip.

Vanitas was about to open his mouth for some witty reply when another voice spoke up. “His name is Vanitas, he was in the real organization and he should be dead.” The voice came from a girl with short black hair a keyblade ready in her hand, the Kingdom Key, that was Sora’s keyblade. Who was this girl?

“He’s with the real organization?” Roxas summoned two keyblades, his stance lowering… Wait that was his attack stance? Damn did this kid have any training? He could break through a stance like that easily even if the kid had two keyblades. 

“Yes, he fought against Aqua and Ventus. Sora killed him.” The girl glared at him. “At least that’s what Ventus said, so why is he here?”

“First of all, all the idiots that were killed there that time traveled just went back to their respective timelines.” He sort of motioned to himself “Which I did.” 

The girl pointed her keyblade at him, her face hardening. The normal kids behind her and Roxas looked nervously at each other and took a step backwards. Obviously not sure what was going on, and well neither did Vanitas really.

“Then what are you doing here? Did Xehanort leave some secret back up plan?” Vanitas could feel his face contort at the name of his old master. The girl raised an eyebrow at him when he did. “You still have his eyes so there must still be a piece of his heart in you.”

Within an instant, Vanitas had his keyblade summoned and had slashed at the girl in rage as a scream escaped his throat. She blocked just in time and their keyblades locked together with a loud clunk, sparks and small magic particles flashed from the point of contact for a second. They glared at each other, he could see Roxas moving at him from the corner of his eyes. He grinned at the kid and let the girl let the force she was exerting to keep him from breaking through her guard trough his own to allow him to be propelled backwards sliding across the floor and stopping gracefully if he did say so himself.

“Xehanort has no fucking control over me.” He growled turning his head to the side as he glared at the girl. “I’ve been free of him for the past ten years and was glad to see him die at Sora’s hands.” 

“You… were there when he died?” Roxas frowned, standing up from his attack stance and jeez was the kid an idiot? Vanitas still had his keyblade out and still in a stance that showed he was ready to attack or defend at a moments notice.

Vanitas snorted before he replied. “Jup, had a front row seat in the Sora express.” 

“Do you mean you where in Sora’s heart?” The voice came from the normal girl, the kids seemed to have moved behind the couch for protection against the fight that was brewing before. She took a step from behind the couch, standing close to Roxas. “Just like Roxas?”

“Wait what? Why would Sora’s heart harbor some asshole?” Roxas looked between the normal girl and Vanitas, frowning.

“What you mean like yourself?” Vanitas snorted, waving his free hand dismissively.

“Shut the fuck up.” the boy bit back, waving on his keyblades.

He rolled his eyes at the kid. “Every heart has darkness, and when I went back to my time Ventus ended up pulling me with him when he went to Sora to heal. I resided in the small corner of his heart that was darkness and healed right along my other half.”

“Your other half?” the girl still had her keyblade pointed at him, but her grip seemed looser. 

“The little light that slept a decade and has the same face as this asshole.” Vanitas vaguely waved in Roxas his direction. 

“Ok that’s fucking weird right?” Roxas waved generally with the black keyblade still in his hand. “Two pairs both connected, having the same face as the other?” the other kids all frowned at him, different levels of confusion on their face. Roxas exasperatedly pointed his keyblade at Vanitas. “He looks like Sora, who is my somebody and this guys apparent other half and me also share a face.” 

“Yes, well, you can blame Ventus for all of that.” this situation was obviously not a treat, neither of these lights were actually going to do something and if they did it wasn’t like they could best them with terrible fighting stances like THAT. Still Vanitas kept his keyblade in his hand and his body ready in case either of them tried to pull something anyway. “My better half connected with Sora, giving my face shape, and went to you when Sora became a Heartless thus somehow making you look like him.” He shrugged. “Not that complicated really.”

“It’s still fucking weird.” Roxas shrugged back. 

“You didn’t explain what you are doing here.” the girl with the keyblade reminded all of them. 

“What I’m not allowed to live in an abandoned mansion? I’d like a roof over my head and a decent bed it’s not complicated.” Vanitas pointed his keyblade at the girl that still had hers trained on him. “Better question, what are you doing in MY house?”

“I doubt you payed for this house, also doesn’t it technically belong to that Ansem the wise guy we met?” The pudgy boy asked, also moving forward with the other kid to stand closer to the keyblade wielders.

Vanitas scoffed at the kids “Yea and he doesn’t live here but I do so for all intents and purposes it’s my house so get out before I fucking make you.” He straightened his stance and pointed his keyblade at all of them.

“We’re not leaving!” The taller kid said, in some determined stupid pose he has seen his better half and his stupid friends do enough times back in the day. Inwardly, Vanitas scoffed at the kids antics. “We’re trying to find Sora using the machines in the basement and we won’t let you get in the way of that!” 

“Sora’s gone, if he hadn’t faded I wouldn’t even be here.”

“Shut up, he’s still out there somewhere and we’ll get him back!” Roxas shouted at him, pointing one keyblade back at Vanitas.

“Why are all the Lights so annoyingly determined?” he sighed, letting his head fall back as he laughed to himself.

“Sora is our friend, we would do anything for him, not like you would understand.” the black haired girl said, Vanitas head snapped back to glare at her.

“Don’t assume you know anything about me puppet.” 

“Don’t call her that!” Roxas yelled as he launched himself at Vanitas. Without much effort on his part, Vanitas dashed to the side. The kid had used to much force into propelling himself forward that he didn't have enough control over his movement to adjust his movement and follow after him easily. Vanitas clicked his tongue as Roxas kept trying to slash at him again and again in anger, sidestepping him every time. Managing to get behind Roxas and smashing him with the handle of his keyblade right in the back. The boy crumpled on the floor, both keyblades disappeared when he hit the floor, too distracted by the pain probably blossoming from his back currently. 

“Roxas!” the girl and the other kids yelled, all of them hurrying to his side.

Vanitas clicked his tongue again.

“Honestly who trained you? Your stance is terrible.” 

Roxas got up slightly to glare at him. 

“Fuck off”

“I get that a lot, has never stopped me.” Vanitas shrugged, hands in the air with his keyblade loosely hanging in one of them. “Anyway get out yea?”

“What the fuck is your problem?” the girl, the puppet, he was sure he knew her from somewhere, she definitely seemed to know him. Whatever it was Vanitas couldn’t quite put his finger on it. She looked like that princess of Light, Sora’s little light. Kairi or something? But also not quite. Yet he somehow knew that calling her a puppet would set her off.

“I got a lot of problems, right now the biggest one is that you lot haven’t left yet.” 

“Okay we’ll leave.” the normal girl had said as she helped Roxas stand up, letting him lean on her.

“But Olette the machine!” the taller kid said as he immediately moved to help the Olette girl half carry Roxas.

“It’s ok, we’ll just ask Namine to help.” She nodded to the pudgy boy and the puppet. “Let’s just make sure Roxas didn’t break a bone and let Vanitas have his peace and quiet ok?” The others seemed hesitant but they nodded and moved to leave, Roxas was mostly dragged and when he looked back Vanitas was surprised to not see him glare at him, but look thoughtfully, like he wanted to ask him something. 

The puppet lagged behind, standing still in the doorway. She didn’t turn to look at him but she did speak.

“Ventus talked about you like you where the world, don’t know what he seems to see in you.” Her head slightly turned and Vanitas could see the glare there. “If you start any shit I won’t hesitate to kill you, I don’t care if Ventus seems to care about you.” The puppet turned her back to him and followed her friends.

That was one hell of a way to start the morning.


	5. Unwanted Conversations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vanitas gets forced to have human contact.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually had a beta for this chapter! Noir thank you so much <3

Vanitas was given a week of peace and quiet. Exactly seven days after those kids had barged into the mansion a knock echoed through the mansion. Vanitas had gone up to the weird white room and looked through the blinds to see who the fuck thought it was a great idea to disturb him right after waking up.

Turns out that was Roxas.

The Light was standing in front of the door, swaying back and forth on his feet impatiently. After doing that for a while Roxas sighed deeply enough that Vanitas could see the exaggerated movement from the 2nd floor. This time knocking loudly and rapidly on the wooden door. Vanitas squinted at him from his position, mostly obscured by the blinds.

Roxas took a few steps back from the door and looked up at the window Vanitas was peeking through. Their eyes met, Roxas looked surprised to see him, Vanitas just gave him the finger and left for the bedroom.

He should have know Sora’s Nobody wouldn’t give up so easily. Whatever it was the Guardian of Light desired from the broken Darkness that was Vanitas.

The next couple of days Roxas would knock on the door Vanitas had locked and reinforced with all the unused furniture to prevent these stupid kids from forcing their way in too easily. Usually, Roxas came alone but sometimes there would be another Guardian of Light, like the tall redhead or the puppet, but usually, it was one of the normal human kids, but most of the time it was the taller blonde kid. He’d preferred when the lights were tagging along, they at least tried to pry Roxas away from his attempts to contact Vanitas.

After a while, Roxas seemed to turn to other means of getting Vanitas his attention. Like shoving letters through the door mail slot that Vanitas quickly taped shut and had burned the letters in one of the chimneys. Or the time when Roxas and that blonde human kid had been shouting things (mostly really creative dumb insults) to get his attention, they had kept that up for 2 hours somehow. Multiple times he found packages of ice cream taped to a window like some kind of weird offering. Roxas did a lot of weird shit to get his attention.

Like right now, the Light was throwing fucking rocks at the window of the white room. Simply put, Vanitas had enough of this idiot’s antics. He opened a corridor and stepped out right behind Roxas, who was still busy throwing the small pile of rocks in his arm at the window. 

“What the  **fuck** do you think you’re doing.” Vanitas growled. Roxas, surprised at the sudden voice letting the rocks in his arm fall onto the ground as a little shriek escaped him, Vanitas couldn’t stop the little huff of amusement that escaped him at that. 

Roxas gathered himself quickly, dusting off his shirt casually. “Oh cool, I thought I was going to have to break the window and crawl in next time.” 

“What do you want.”

“Just to talk.” Vanitas squinted at the kid as he turned around, already opening a new corridor. Roxas quickly grabbed hold of his arm.    
  


“Shit wait, come on!” 

“No.” 

“Come on man, at least  _ listen  _ for a second.” he tugged at Vanitas his arm hoping to get him further away from the corridor that was still swirling with darkness.

“Ok, your second is over, leave me alone.”

“You know I didn’t mean it like  _ that _ , just listen and I’ll leave you alone, ok?” The two keyblade wielders glared at each other, Roxas his eyes full of determination, Vanitas his eyes probably showing disgust and annoyance. 

Fuck why did Roxas have the same puppy eyes as Sora and Ventus, how was he supposed to resist that. Fucking unfair.

Vanitas sighed deeply, throwing his head back to break the dreaded eye contact. With a wave of his hand, he closed the corridor. And pushing Roxas away to let go of his arm.

Roxas didn’t seem to know what to do now, the two of them stood there for a minute in silence avoiding each other’s eyes when Roxas finally spoke up, scratching the back of his head while looking away. “Uhh want to get ice cream and talk on the clock tower?” 

“Do I have much of a say in the matter?” Roxas shook his head with a giant grin plastered on his stupid face, already taking hold of his arm again as he started to drag Vanitas through the forest.

What had he gotten himself into?

-0-

They sat in silence while eating their ice cream, Roxas hadn’t said anything to him so far. He did laugh at Vanitas when he made weird faces when tasting the ice cream for the first time. But it seemed Roxas was too busy shoving his face full of ice cream.

He was aware the kid was in a replica body and also a nobody, but it was pretty fucking inhuman how Roxas just bit into the ice with his teeth like that was a totally normal thing to do. Vanitas visibly shuddered every time he glanced at Roxas when he happened to bite a piece clean off. What the  **fuck** .

Vanitas, on the other hand, took his sweet time licking his ice cream like anybody who didn’t have teeth made out of steel would do. Roxas finished his ice cream rather quickly but patiently waited on the other.

Even after Vanitas had finished up, the two of them just stared at the sunset. Vanitas fumbled with the ice cream stick between his fingers. What could Roxas possibly want to talk about? Was it about Sora? It’s not like he knew where exactly Sora had gone, he assumed he would’ve gone with him when he inevitably faded, he assumed he would be by the stupid kid’s side to make sure wherever they ended up, he wouldn’t get himself killed. But Vanitas rarely got what he wanted, did he? Although this way he might have an opportunity to see Ventus again, that is if he wasn’t such a coward and actually follow their connection to wherever he was. Could Roxas want to talk about Ventus? What if the kid had told Ventus he was back, and his other half had told Roxas to give him the message he was unwanted and should disappear into the darkness.

“Are you listening to me?” Vanitas jerked up when he suddenly saw Roxas his face hanging in front of him. It was definitely dangerous to lean like that this high up, keyblade wielder or not. Vanitas scoffed after collecting himself and pushed Roxas back into a normal sitting position.

Roxas hummed thoughtfully, tilting his head slightly to the side, a mannerism Sora often showed as well. “You were kind of spacing out there.” the blond hummed playfully.

Vanitas scrunched his face, glaring at the kid next to him. “And what about it?”

“That you missed half the conversation I was trying to have with you.” Roxas waved his ice cream stick near Vanitas his face as if it proved some kind of point.

“Then just tell me again, not like you have anything useful to do if all the times you’ve been bothering me in front of the mansion is anything to go by.”

Roxas grabbed the sleeve of his hoodie tightly. “I know for sure that this is my hoodie.”

“What?”

“A little while ago half my wardrobe got stolen and I’m sure that this is my hoodie because I stained it with paint. ” Roxas turned Vanitas his arm around to reveal the bit of paint that had stained the sleeve in question. “right here to be exact.”

Vanitas quickly shrugged himself free while glaring to the other. “I needed clothes, I don’t have munny.” He waved the arm that wasn’t held hostage a second ago. “Just happened to climb through the window to your apartment.”

“That’s a weird fucking coincidence then.” Vanitas shrugged again as Roxas glared daggers at him. “Why my wardrobe though, why not Axel’s or Xion’s?”

“Your clothes just so happened to fit me.”

The kid huffed, obviously somewhat annoyed, as he turned to look back at the near-permanent sunset of this world. The two of them returned to the silence they were in before while eating ice cream.

Roxas was again the first to break the silence.

“You were with Sora for as long as Ventus, right?” Roxas pulled one of his legs up and wrapped his arms around it.

“Pretty much.”

“Why haven’t I ever felt you before?”

“In Sora’s heart?”

“I could feel other hearts, Xion’s was easy to recognize, Ventus was there too although I couldn’t really reach out to him, probably because he was sleeping during that time.” He leaned his head on his knee now, glancing at Vanitas. “I never felt another presence than them.”

“You were kept in Sora’s light, while I was held prisoner deep down in the Darkness of Sora’s heart.” 

Roxas frowned at him and looked back at the sunset. Contemplating this. Not that Vanitas thought there was much to contemplate about, it was pretty straight forward in his opinion. He is Darkness, they are Light.

“Do you care about him?”

Vanitas turned his head to fully look at Roxas, instead of just from the corner of his eyes. “Who?”

“Sora.”

He glanced away quickly to avoid eye contact, hoping not to reveal anything incriminating to Roxas. Opting to stare at the sunset instead. It really was a beautiful sight. For some reason, the sky in this world seemed to hold more color than the sunset in the Graveyard ever did. It was hard to look away from.

“If he died so would I, so I cared about his survival.” Vanitas glanced at Roxas with just his eyes. “But he’s gone and I’m in my own body again so it doesn’t matter now.”

“That’s not exactly an answer.” Roxas shoved his shoulder against Vanitas, making the man almost fall backward. He glared at the kid when he balanced himself up again. Why the fuck did he think he could just touch him. Ventus was the only one he was ok with even coming near him. Did the kid think just because he shared similar features to his other half he could do what he wanted?

“Does it really matter?” 

“It does to me.”

“And I should care about your feelings why?”

“Because It also matters to Ventus, if that is a motivator.” Vanitas glared daggers at the side of Roxas his face, the kid was just casually looking at the sunset when he said that. Fucking dirty to wave his only weak spot in front of his face. 

“I watched the kid grow up, it became hard to outright hate him and that’s all you’re getting out of me.”

Roxas’s head fell back and his shoulders shook heavily as he laughed at that.

“That’s enough for me.”

“What was the point of this?”

“You’re another connection that we can trace to find Sora.” Vanitas glared for the umpteenth time. So he just wanted to use him to get his precious Somebody back. Of course, it’s not like anyone would ever try to talk with him about anything if it wasn’t for some personal gain or to argue. 

Vanitas was shaken out of that thought spiral’s steep decline to familiar depths when Roxas spoke again. “Plus, you’re not half bad company, I thought you would be a lot edgier and hard to talk to like Saix used to be... Or still kinda is.” 

“That blue-haired bootlicker?” Roxas’s entire body shook as he laughed at that, swatting Vanitas his shoulder as if that was a normal thing to do. As if touching the Darkness, his enemy, casually was a normal thing to do.

“You’re not wrong in calling him a bootlicker.” the kid snorted.

“Well if the bar is that low, of course, I’m better company.”

The conversation lulled to a stop, and the two keyblade wielders stared at the sunset for a while longer. At some point, Vanitas deemed this conversation officially over and made to get up. 

“Hey, wait.”

Vanitas groaned inwardly. “What.” Came out harshly instead.

“How about we hang out here again tomorrow?” 

“Why the fuck would I want to do that.”

“You’d be getting some fresh air, I know for sure you don’t get out often.” Vanitas was about to retaliate with something witty but Roxas kept going. “Not to mention I saw you enjoying the ice cream, my treat yeah?”

“Fine, whatever.” Like he was going to say no to free sweets, the recent supply he had stolen from the Bistro was running low anyway.

Vanitas opened a Corridor of Darkness back to the mansion and stepped through it.

-0-

Roxas came home in a good mood, he opened the door to the apartment he shared with his two best friends and was met with the smell of food being cooked, it didn’t smell burned so that meant that Saix was probably over.

When he came out of their hallway after dropping off his coat and taking off his shoes and putting them neatly on the rack like Axel always urged him to do, he was indeed met with the sight of Saix cooking in their kitchen, wearing that dumb apron that Axel had bought as a joke. The apron had a flowery print with a pink undertone and the best part of it all were the frilly ends. Axel called it irony, but Roxas knew his friend was actually just a big softy. 

Saix looked as hilarious in it as Axel did, stirring in the pan and looking over at Axel who was telling a story while waving his hands around like a maniac. The two of them noticed the blond coming in and waved him a quick hello. Roxas waved back as he went to his and Xion’s room.

He opened the door and found his friend laying on her bed, laptop on her stomach but paying more attention to her phone where she was probably talking to Namine if the soft blush on her face was any indication. Which meant she was totally distracted. Roxas grinned as he launched himself next to her on the bed.

She shrieked loudly, her phone flying into the air and laptop falling off her lap but thankfully still on the bed. When she recognized who had jumped on her bed she yelled his name while punching him against his right side. He let out a playful groan while clutching his side dramatically.

“Ugh sorry about that Namine, my idiotic brother just jumped on my bed.” She said to her phone when she found it again.

Roxas vaguely heard Namine laughing and talking but he was too busy smiling at himself because Xion called him her brother. It was something they started doing only recently, it was still a little weird but it felt pretty good to do as well.

“Talk to you later, bye!” Xion ended the video call and threw her phone somewhere further on her bed, her soft expression turning into a familiar one of mild annoyance as she looked at him. “What do you want you absolute menace.”

“Just wanted to say hello to my dear little sister.” Xion’s face turned red.

“Ugh, it's still weird to call each other that.” Roxas flopped on his side and propped up his head on his hand.

“It’s kinda weird, but I prefer it over thinking of you as mine and Vexen’s kid or something.”

“Oh no! now I’m stuck with that image in my head.” Xion groaned and rolled over on her stomach, shoving her face into her pillow. Roxas laughed at her.

“I actually managed to have a conversation with Vanitas today.” He said after a moment of silence. Xion shot up at that, disbelief on her face, which quickly turned into anger as she punched his shoulder. 

“You said you were hanging out with Hayner, Pence, and Olette today!”

“Stopping hitting your beloved older brother or I’ll tell Axel.” He laughed and shoved Xion's hand away from punching distance. “And I was, it was cut short so I thought I’d try to talk to him again.”

Xion’s glare morphed into an exasperated look as she sighed deeply, throwing an arm over her face dramatically. “What should I do with you, Roxas.” She lifted her arm again to peek at him. “Tell me, How did it go?”

“I think he’s just not aware of how to talk normally to people but it wasn’t bad, we had a decent conversation.” Xion hummed, also flopping on her side to properly look at her brother. “He’s also our clothing thief, funnily enough.”

“Odd coincidence but not surprising.” She rolled her eyes as she said it. “What about getting him to help?”

“Well I definitely think he cares about Sora but I’m not sure how cooperative he’ll be.”

“He’s an asshole.”

“Yeah well so was Saix and he’s basically our second dad now.”

“Ugh don’t remind me It’s weird to think about Axel and Saix together.” 

They made eye contact for a few seconds before both bursting out laughing. 

  
Roxas was so happy here, with this little family they created together, but he missed Sora and would do anything to get his Somebody back just as Sora had done for him. It was the least he could do. He hoped Vanitas would help them too, he didn’t seem half bad, there was just a lot of hurt behind his eyes, it reminded him of how Xion and his own eyes looked back in the Organization.

-0-

Vanitas stepped through the Corridor to get back to his temporary home, away from the clocktower.

Stepping through the darkness was familiar, but still tiring in his current state. Once arriving at the other end of the portal he stepped into his own bedroom at the mansion. Surrounded by his little fledgling emotions, he bends down to pick one up but collapses instead when a sudden stab of pain blooms from his chest.

The Unversed chitter in panic around him, moving rapidly towards their creator, some try to nudge him others hopping onto him. But instead, their creator only responds with an ear-deafening scream as the pain in his chest blossoms and spreads from his chest to every limb, the intensity pulsing in waves as Vanitas curls up in a fetal position, hoping it would lessen the excruciating pain. A flood appears right before his eyes but all Vanitas can see is a blur due to the tears that had formed in his eyes. Just as the flood wants to lick up a tear it scampers off terrified, startled from the sounds its creator makes as he screams his throat raw.

Vanitas yells the pain out, begging to anyone to make it stop until it does. The yelling and whimpering stopped as the male passed out on the floor.

**Author's Note:**

> You made it to the end, hope that was enjoyable to read!
> 
> Updating will be sporadic and I don't have any plans to be consistent so uhh be aware of random ass updates whenever the heck I managed to write more. uwu
> 
> Feel free to drop feedback! This is the first story I'm going to write in full other than random one-shots for myself and it'll be greatly appreciated!


End file.
